Jalapa

About Jalapa:

Jalapa covers 2,063 square kilometres in the east of the country and borders El Progreso and Zacapa to the north, Chiquimula to the east, Jutiapa and Santa Rosa to the south and the department of Guatemala to the west. It was carved out of Jutiapa on 24 November 1873, when President Justo Rufino Barrios decreed that Jutiapa had grown too large for its authorities to oversee. Seven municipalities make it up: Jalapa, San Pedro Pinula, Mataquescuintla, Monjas, San Luis Jilotepeque, San Carlos Alzatate and San Manuel Chaparrón. The main road is RN-19, which leaves the Atlantic highway at Sanarate, passes Sansare and the cabecera, and runs on through Monjas to El Progreso in Jutiapa and the Pan-American Highway. That route puts the city of Jalapa 96 kilometres from Guatemala City; going round by Jutiapa and Santa Rosa takes 168. On the western side, RN-18 links Mataquescuintla with San José Pinula over a little more than 40 kilometres, and the vegetables, cattle and pinabete of that corner of the department travel to market on it.

Farming and livestock carry the economy. Fields produce maize, beans, rice, potatoes, cassava, chiles, coffee, tobacco and sugarcane, while ranches raise cattle, horses and pigs and feed a dairy trade in cheese, cream and butter; panela, coffee processing and leatherwork add to it. In the Monjas valley, the Laguna del Hoyo at aldea Los Terrones stores water for an irrigation system that serves more than four thousand growers, and tomatoes and chiles grow there under irrigation. Mataquescuintla is coffee country: in 2022 a lot from its Finca El Morito fetched the highest price at Guatemala’s Cup of Excellence auction. San Luis Jilotepeque is known for painted pottery and San Pedro Pinula for palm hats, and Hacienda San Pedro in Pinula runs a dairy tour where visitors milk cows and watch cheese being made. The cabecera serves the whole department, with the Gobernación and the seat of the Diocese of Jalapa, founded in 1951, whose territory also takes in Jutiapa and El Progreso.

The land is mountainous almost everywhere. A branch of the Sierra Madre enters from the south under local names such as El Norte and La Cumbre in San Pedro Pinula, Güisitepeque in San Manuel Chaparrón and Del Aguacate in San Carlos Alzatate, and the Jumay, Alzatate and Monterrico volcanoes are all protected areas. Altitude runs from 1,720 metres at San Carlos Alzatate down to 800 metres at San Luis Jilotepeque, and Jalapa calls itself the Morena Climatológica de Oriente for its mild weather. The cold is real on the high ground, though. In some years frost settles there in December and January, and that decides what can be planted up there and where. Water has always been the limit: when a royal commission scouted the Jalapa and Jumay valleys as a site for a new capital after the 1773 earthquakes, it praised the climate and turned the area down for lack of drinking water, and forest clearing since then has left even less for irrigation.

The 2018 census counted 342,923 people, 41 percent more than in 2002, and projections put the department above 410,000 by 2024. Jalapa municipality holds almost half of them, San Pedro Pinula comes second with about 62,000, and San Manuel Chaparrón, with some 8,300, is the smallest. Spanish is the everyday language, yet the indigenous past is still organised on the ground: the Xinka communities of Santa María Xalapán and San Carlos Alzatate hold land in common, and Poqomam is still spoken in San Luis Jilotepeque. Most buyers are families from the department itself, growers and ranchers adding land, and a smaller number of people from outside looking for a coffee or cattle finca.

Houses in Jalapa:

The cabecera holds the widest choice of houses for sale in Jalapa, from roomy family homes in older barrios such as San Francisco to newer houses on the roads out of town. In Monjas, San Pedro Pinula, Mataquescuintla and the other municipal seats, the offer is family houses on generous lots, some newly built on plots of 20 by 20 metres. Outside the towns a house usually comes with land, and often the land is what you are really buying. Before you settle on a price, ask where the water comes from and how it holds up in March and April. On the high ground, ask too how the house copes with cold December nights.

Rentals in Jalapa:

Renting is a cabecera affair. The university centre, the national hospital and the departmental offices bring in students, health workers and public employees who need rooms, small apartments and modest houses. If you are buying to let, the city is where the tenants are. Agree in writing who pays for water and electricity and on what terms the deposit comes back.

Land and Lots in Jalapa:

Lotificaciones are the most common way into the market. In San Pedro Pinula, projects such as Prados de San José sell lots of 10 by 30 metres on a down payment and monthly instalments, and aldeas such as El Jocote have low-cost plots; on the edges of the cabecera, smaller urban lots are sold the same way. Larger flat parcels beside paved roads, the kind a developer would split, also come up around Pinula. In the countryside land is measured in manzanas, and the first questions are slope and water: much of the department is too steep to farm, so a level parcel with a spring or river access is worth far more than its size suggests. Before you sign an instalment contract, check that the lotificación is registered and has municipal approval.

Farms and Fincas in Jalapa:

Coffee fincas are concentrated in Mataquescuintla, where some are sold fenced with barbed and electric wire and come with substantial buildings, and the cold ground around Soledad Grande grows pinabete. Cattle and dairy farms spread through San Pedro Pinula and Monjas, and there pasture, water and an all-weather road count for more than any house on the land. In the Monjas valley, ask whether the parcel is served by the Laguna del Hoyo irrigation system, because irrigated ground and rain-fed ground are two different purchases. Higher up, find out whether the property touches the protected volcanoes of Jumay, Alzatate or Monterrico, and ask the neighbours how hard the last frost hit.

FAQ:

• How far is Jalapa from Guatemala City?

  The cabecera is 96 kilometres from the capital by the CA-9 to Sanarate and then RN-19 south through Sansare. Mataquescuintla has its own route, RN-18 from San José Pinula, and Monjas lies 23 kilometres beyond the cabecera on the way to El Progreso in Jutiapa.

• Where in Jalapa does land title need extra care?

  On the communal lands. The Comunidad Indígena de Santa María Xalapán holds the mountain above the cabecera, and in San Carlos Alzatate much of the land is administered by its own Comunidad Indígena, so a seller there may hold a right the community recognises rather than a finca registered in their name. Ask which it is, request the certificate from the property registry, and talk to the community authorities before any money changes hands. In a lotificación, confirm that your lot will be registered on its own.

• Where is farmland with water in Jalapa?

  The Monjas valley is the best-known answer: its fertile floor is irrigated from the Laguna del Hoyo, which supplies more than four thousand growers. Rivers such as the Ostúa, the Colorado and the Jalapa cross the rest of the department, but most of the ground is steep and forest clearing has cut the water available for irrigation, so confirm the source on every parcel.

• Does it get cold in Jalapa?

  On the high ground, yes. San Carlos Alzatate sits at 1,720 metres, and in some years frost forms in December and January, enough to damage crops. San Luis Jilotepeque, at 800 metres, stays warm, so farming conditions change a lot within one department.

• What is there to see in Jalapa?

  The Tatasirire waterfalls, the Laguna del Hoyo in Monjas and the Jumay volcano are the best-known outings. The colonial churches of San Pedro Pinula, San Luis Jilotepeque and aldea Santo Domingo, whose first church dates from 1550, and the ruins of the Ingenio de Ayarza draw visitors interested in history, and the cabecera’s fair runs from 8 to 15 September.